


April Comes in Like a Lion

by Lynx22281



Series: Unfold Your Love [7]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Childbirth, Multi, Storms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-21 04:43:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3677994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lynx22281/pseuds/Lynx22281
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Winchesters deal with an early spring storm</p>
            </blockquote>





	April Comes in Like a Lion

Dean hated days like this. All day long, the weather had been unsettled. Steely gray clouds gathered and dissipated in a matter of minutes like the sun couldn't quite decide whether or not it wanted to shine down on the plains. There'd been a smattering of random showers, drenching one side of town, but leaving the other dry as a bone. And it was hot, way hotter than early April should be. The humidity and the heat made conditions perfect for tornados. 

  


Weather like this set Dean on edge. Always had. Even as a kid, he'd stalk from window to window wherever he happened to be on the lookout for the telltale finger-like formation of a funnel jutting down from the cloud bank. Over two decades later, he was still doing the same thing.

  


Cas, who was currently on call at the hospital, made fun of him for it. He didn't understand how a guy who'd spent his entire life in Kansas could still be so unnerved by thunderstorms, how he wasn't used to the threat. Cas, on the other hand, absolutely loved the wild weather. If he hadn't become a doctor, Dean was pretty sure his husband would have been a storm chaser. 

  


On one of his circuits around the house, Dean stopped in the doorways of the kids' rooms to watch them sleeping peacefully under the watchful glow of their night lights. Emma slept on her left side clutching her favorite stuffed bear tightly to her body, her mouth drawn up in a pout. Luke sprawled out in his crib on his back, arms and legs akimbo, just like Sam had slept when he was little (apparently he still occasionally slept like that, much to Jess's dismay). Harrison was in a different position every time Dean checked on him and was currently laying on his stomach with his diapered butt up in the air.

  


Dean headed back downstairs, baby monitor clipped to the waistband of his jeans, and stepped out onto the back deck. The air had changed, he could taste it on the back of his tongue and feel it in the way the hairs stood up on his bare arms. Lightning lit up the sky, highlighting the shapes in the clouds towering overhead for a solid 10 seconds. Something hard and heavy landed with a thud on the deck just a foot away from where he stood - a golf ball sized hailstone. As he turned to hurry back into the house, he heard the tornado siren a couple of streets away rev up, wailing out its warning.

  


Dashing upstairs, he went to Emma's room first, shaking her awake gently, but urgently. "Emma, wake up, baby."

  


She blinked sleepy blue eyes up at him. As much as he wanted to pick her up and let her keep sleeping, they only had a few minutes to get to safety. He needed her to get up and head downstairs on her own so he could get her brothers from their cribs. Hail was loud as it beat down on the roof.

  


"C'mon, princess. I need you to take Bee and go downstairs to the basement. Can you do that for me?"

  


She nodded, rubbing her eyes as she slipped off her bed and toddled to the stairs, dragging her bear along behind her. Dean spared just a second to watch her take the first careful step down the stairs before he hurried into the nursery to grab the twins and the diaper bag they kept ready by the door.

  


Lightning flashed, so close that Dean could hear the air sizzle in the brief seconds before thunder shook the house. Before the rumble stopped, the darkened house lit up again. Emma screamed.

  


"Emma, basement!" he shouted as he got the sleepy boys situated on his hips and hurried down the stairs.

  


The wind picked up, whistling shrilly under the overhang of the front porch as Dean rounded the bannister. He could barely see out of the big picture window in the living room for the downpour the storm had unleashed. Just as he got to the basement door, the house went completely silent, the power abruptly cutting off. He fumbled in his pocket, trying not to drop Harrison while he fished out his cellphone. He flicked the phone on and pointed it down the stairs, lighting up the space. Emma stood stock still halfway down. She stared up at him, blue eyes wide with fright.

  


"You ok?"

  


"It got dark," she answered in a small, quivery voice.

  


"Yeah, baby, it did. Can you see ok now?"

  


"Uh-huh." She very carefully took each step one at a time in the dim glow of Dean's cellphone, clutching the railing with both hands. Bee was lying in a heap at the foot of the stairs. The instant her feet hit the floor below, Emma grabbed her bear murmuring apologizes into its yellow and black striped belly.

  


Dean pulled the door closed, barely muffling the growing noise raging outside their house before hurrying down the basement stairs.

  


"Get in the bathroom," he said raising his voice over the sound of the wind and thunder growing louder and louder with each passing second.

  


Emma ran for the half-bath that had been specifically built as a tornado shelter by the original owner of their house. The painted drywall hid the rebar reinforced concrete block walls. The fact that the room was below ground made it feel safer. It was definitely one of the things Dean was thankful for when he moved in with Cas. Most of the older houses in town didn't have purposefully built shelters, leaving their occupants to wait out storms in ground floor bathrooms or closets.

  


Dean closed the door, putting one more barrier between his family and the storm baring down like a freight train on their neighborhood. The twins were awake now, looking around with sleepy apprehension at the sudden change in scenery. Luke whined quietly with his face buried in Dean's neck while Harrison clutched at Dean's t-shirt with both hands. Carefully, Dean sat down on the floor, pulling all three kids close to him. 

  


"Where's Papa? I want him here," Emma whispered, lower lip trembling.

  


Dean pressed a kiss to her wayward hair as she huddled closer to his chest. "Me too, honeybee, but he's at the hospital and that's the best place he can be right now. Hey, why don't we sing to the boys? I think they're a little scared of all the noise."

  


"Mmkay." Emma nodded. In a childish flat-tone she started singing, " _Na, na, na, nanana na._ "

  


Dean joined in with her, keeping one ear open to the sounds of the storm rolling over their house. 

  


It didn't last too very long, fifteen minutes at the most. When it was over, the silence was almost worse than the noise had been.

  


After it had been quiet for a solid five minutes, Dean gently extracted himself from his kids. He stood up and cautiously opened the bathroom door. The basement was still in one piece, nothing out of place. 

  


"Emma," he said as he stooped down to pick up the twins again. "I need you stay down here for a little while and watch your brothers."

  


"Ok," she said sticking close to him as he walked over to Pack n' Play in the corner of the den to put the boys down somewhere safe. 

  


He fumbled around in the closet until he found a flashlight and handed it to Emma, knowing she wouldn't like being all alone in the dark. She flicked it on and off a couple of times, amusing herself until she caught his eye and gave him a sheepish little smile that reminded him so much of Cas. He stroked her hair for a moment before heading towards the door.

  


"Don't leave the basement, ok?"

  


"Ok, Daddy," she replied.

  


Dean hated to leave his four-year-old on her own with her infant brothers, but he didn't want to risk her getting hurt in whatever aftermath the storm had left in its wake. He trotted up the stairs and carefully opened the door, dreading what he might find on the other side.

  


Blessedly, the house was still standing. The place still had a solidness about it that made him hopeful that there wasn't any serious damage that he wasn't immediately seeing. It might look worse on the outside, but from inside everything was as it should be.

  


The hopefulness faded as soon as he opened the front door and walked out onto the porch. For a good minute he had no idea what he was looking at and briefly wondered if the storm had picked up his house and set it down somewhere else a la _The Wizard of Oz_. The sight before him was not that of the neighborhood he'd lived in for the past six years. His heart leapt up into his chest when he finally processed that the four houses across the street, including his brother's, had been reduced to massive piles of rubble.

  


"Sam!" He tore down the steps of his own house and sprinted across the debris-strewn lawn.

  


"Dean Winchester!" came a voice from behind him.

  


He paused before he got to the road, turning to see Missouri Mosley standing on her own porch.

  


"Son, where are your babies?" she hollered at him as she pulled a floral housecoat tightly around her body.

  


"They're in the basement, Missouri. Will you go sit with them?" he called not waiting for her reply before running across the street. 

  


Other people were starting to wander out of their homes to survey the damage as Dean made his way towards what was left of Sam's house, calling out to his brother and Jess and the boys. Their house didn't have a basement, but Sam had had the tiny closet under the stairs retrofitted with reinforced walls. Hopefully his family had been able to stuff themselves into the small space before the storm hit.

  


"Sam! Sammy!" Dean stood at the edge of the destruction, momentarily at a loss for what to do. The sky overhead still lit up occasionally with distant lightning, but the thunder was far away and muffled when it finally came. Under the thunder, he thought he heard something move under the wreckage. "Sam!"

  


"Dean!" 

  


His brother's voice was the most beautiful thing in the world at that moment.

  


"Hey, you guys ok?" Dean called out to him, as he started plotting out a way to get to his brother through what was left of the house.

  


"Uh, yeah. We're ok. Just, uh, kinda stuck in here at the moment."

  


"Ok, if you guys are ok, it's probably better to wait until we get a little more manpower down here to help move things." Dean pulled his phone out, frowning at the _No Service_ message on the display. "Can you sit tight while I check on everybody else?"

  


"Sure."

  


Dean felt sick at having to leave yet another loved one behind, but duty drew him towards their neighbors. Those who were able to leave their houses came together to search for survivors. Before too long a different kind of siren could be heard heading towards the neighborhood. Firetrucks, ambulances, and police cars arrived on scene, their crews swarming the area with tools and supplies to take care of the situation.

  


After checking in with the first responders and giving them information about the families in the neighborhood so they could start accounting for everybody, he commandeered a police radio to get a message sent to Cas that they were all ok and that he'd call him once he got cell reception again. Then he went in search of someone to help.

  


A short while later word got passed to Dean that Sam was asking for him. He hurried back over to his brother's house from where he'd been helping the EMTs in administering first aid to some of the injured. 

  


"Hey, Sam," he called from the walkway that used to lead up to the porch. "What's up?"

  


"Jess's water broke."

  


"Shit," Dean breathed before waving to the nearest fire crew. "We got a woman in labor over here!"

  


Chainsaws buzzed away as the rescuers got to work clearing a path to the trapped family. In a strange bit of luck, the top of the house had fallen away completely, so they didn't have to worry about the second story collapsing down onto them. Once the way was cleared enough for Sam to push open the door, he handed his sons through the crack to waiting firemen who passed the boys over to Dean. Bones came running out, leaping over the ruins of the house like the surefooted canine he was. He whined pitifully at Dean's side as they waited on the sidewalk with Liam and Colt, who clung to Dean's legs in shock. 

  


Finally, after a few more tense minutes of sawing and shifting, two firemen emerged carrying Jess with Sam stumbling along behind them. They immediately headed towards an ambulance, but Jess shook off the offer of a ride to the hospital.

  


"I'm good. I'm good," she insisted, rubbing her swollen belly. "There are hurt people here. Save it for somebody who really needs it."

  


"I can take her," Dean reassured the wary EMTs who hovered at Jess's side. The Impala was still drivable, safely parked in the intact garage.

  


"Thanks, man," Sam said, clapping his brother on the shoulder gently. 

  


"C'mon. Missouri's watching my kids. I'm sure she won't mind watching yours too." Dean picked up Colt and took Liam's hand so their dad could help their mom navigate around the debris littering the road. Bones ran ahead of them once he realized where they were headed.

  


Quickly, they got the kids and dog settled in the basement den with Missouri. The twins were already fast asleep again, completely over the excitement from earlier. 

  


Emma clung tight to Dean's neck. "Daddy, don't go."

  


"Baby, I've gotta take Aunt Jess to the hospital and check on Papa." He soothed a big hand down her back, trying to relax the tenseness in her little body. "I promise I'll call as soon as I get to the hospital."

  


Missouri stepped over to them, holding her phone out to Emma. "Here, sweetheart. You can hold onto this until your daddy calls, ok?"

  


The little girl sniffled against Dean's shoulder. "Do you have _Candy Crush_?"

  


Missouri chuckled softly. "Yes, I do. You wanna try to beat my high score?"

  


As Emma took the phone from Missouri, Dean noticed Jess and Sam stepping into the bathroom. He finally managed to set his daughter down on the couch with her cousins, three little heads bowing over the glow of the cell phone.

  


"Thanks for staying with them, Missouri," Dean said as he waited for Sam and Jess to reemerge. "I owe you lawn care for the rest of the summer."

  


"Aww, hun. Ain't nothing, but being neighborly," she tutted softly, patting his arm. "After this storm, I'm just glad to be one who can help instead of one who needs help."

  


"We need to go," Sam said as he ushered Jess up the basement stairs.

  


The three Winchesters thanked Missouri all the way up to the garage door, promising cookies, steak dinners, car washes, oil changes, and everything else they could think of.

  


The power was still out, so Dean and Sam had to manually open the heavy garage door, but they managed without too much trouble. Dean eased the Impala through the maze of emergency vehicles and pieces of houses that had ended up scattered all over the street while Sam sat in the backseat with Jess.

  


The going was slow. Downed power lines and trees made Dean turn around and backtrack several times trying to find a passable route to the hospital. The normally 20-minute drive was quickly passing double that amount.

  


All of a sudden, Jess gasped. "I don't think we're gonna make it."

  


"Just breathe, Jess!" Sam urged.

  


Dean dug out his phone, sighing in relief when he saw that he had full bars of service. He quickly thumbed down his contact list to Cas's name as he drove around a downed tree. 

  


"Dean," came the relieved sound of his husband's voice over the line.

  


"Hey, I've got Jess in the car and you're gonna need to meet us in the parking lot. I'm turning into the ER entrance right now." 

  


"Is she injured?"

  


"Baby's coming, so we need baby stuff," he replied.

  


"Ok, Meg and I will meet you outside."

  


Dean braked hard to take the right-hand turn into the driveway leading up to the emergency department. There was already a line of ambulances, lights flashing red and yellow, in the circle in front of the doors and people dressed in scrubs were running around amongst the wounded. He pulled in line behind the last ambulance with its doors open to show its empty cabin. Cas and Meg ran up to the side of the Impala, arms full of supplies, as Dean hopped out of the driver's side to open the back door.

  


"She's been pushing since we turned in," Sam warned as he and Meg helped Jess scoot along to the edge of the bench seat.

  


Cas pulled on a pair of gloves before opening a paper drape. "Lift your hips."

  


Meg crammed herself into the footwell to help Cas get the cover under Jess's bottom and then she held up Jess's leg.

  


"Ok, baby's right there. Good job," Cas said encouragingly once he was able to assess her progress. "Go ahead and push when you feel it."

  


Jess curled over her belly, baring down hard. She cried out, griping Sam's hand tightly. Cas pressed a towel against her as the baby's head started to crown.

  


"C'mon," he coaxed. "You're doing good. Keep going. The head's almost out."

  


Dean watched, transfixed by the sight of his sister-in-law giving birth in the backseat of his car. Sam rested his cheek against Jess's temple keeping up a running commentary of praise and encouragement that was echoed by Meg and Cas. Finally with one last surge, Cas caught the baby and immediately placed her up on Jess's bare stomach for her parents to meet her. Meg pulled sterile packages of clamps and scissors from her scrub pockets, handing them to Cas. Once Cas clamped and cut the umbilical cord, two EMTs helped transfer mother and newborn to a waiting stretcher for the ride into the hospital. Grinning wide, Sam gave his brother and brother-in-law big hugs before running to catch up with his wife.

  


Cas peeled off his gloves, tossing them on the ground with the rest of the used medical supplies before turning and pulling Dean close. Dean squeezed him back hard. Meg patted them both on the shoulder before heading into back into the hospital.

  


"You're ok?" Cas asked, breathing heavily into his husband's neck.

  


"Yeah, I'm good." Dean kissed his cheek, running his hands up and down his back. Cas had never felt so good in his arms before.

  


"The kids?"

  


"They're fine. Missouri's watching them, but here," Dean paused to fish his cellphone out of his pocket again. "Call Emma and let her know you're ok."

  


"Dean, it's two in the morning," he argued. "She's probably asleep by now."

  


"She'll be more upset if she wakes up and hasn't heard from you yet."

  


Cas relented and scrolled to their neighbor's name.

  


"You boys better have made it to the hospital in one piece," Missouri said by way of greeting.

  


"Hello, Missouri," Cas replied.

  


"Hey, Doc. I got a little girl here who's been fightin' sleep as hard as she can just so she can stay awake for your call. Emma, honey, talk to your dad."

  


The phone rustled for a second before a little voice came over the line. "Papa?"

  


"Hey, bumblebee. It's time for you to go to bed, ok?" he said gently, leaning into Dean as they stood on the sidewalk together.

  


"Will you be here when I wake up?" she asked.

  


"I sure will," he promised. "I love you."

  


"Love you too, Papa." The call disconnected before he could say anything else.

  


Cas handed the phone back to Dean. "I guess it's pretty bad out there."

  


"Bad doesn't even begin to describe it," Dean said with a little huff. "We're probably going to have guests for a few weeks. Their house? It's just....gone."

  


"But ours is ok?"

  


"As far as I could tell in the dark. I heard some of the responders saying they wouldn't be surprised if it was a high EF-3 or low EF-4 that touched down. Apparently the thing stayed on the ground for a couple of miles."

  


Cas squeezed Dean tight. "I'm sorry I wasn't there with you."

  


"We made it through," Dean said quietly, squeezing back. 

  


"I'm thankful you and the kids are ok," Cas breathed softly against Dean's collarbone. 

  


Dean smiled gently at him. "C'mon, let's go inside and meet our new niece."

  


Inside the emergency department, overflowing with traumas caused by the storm, little Annie Elizabeth Winchester was a ray of sunshine for her parents and uncles.


End file.
